


Broken

by TheMulletWhisperer



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, F/F, Gen, Heavy Angst, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 18:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7855792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMulletWhisperer/pseuds/TheMulletWhisperer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dreams have a way of haunting someone, but once reality hits them, they'll be begging for the nightmares to come back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken

**Author's Note:**

> *Blows cheeks out and waves hand around* I got a general idea for this and the hankering (no I'm not from the south I'm just stupid shutup) to write, so...here you go!
> 
> This is a sequel to my first Fallout 4 story, Until You Hear It. It's not necessary to understand this in the slightest, but I'd recommend reading it! *Plugs self shamelessly*
> 
> Oh yeah, and minor spoilers for Far Harbor.

Alexandra awoke in a cold sweat, running her gloved hand down her face. The Prydwen, she was still on the Prydwen. Far Harbor was now almost a week away. A week since she’d seen Piper.

Giving a soft little sigh and willing back the tears that’d come every night, she swung her legs over the bed, dressed to the bare minimum of her fatigues, only the trousers and undershirt. However, as she retrieved the vest and slipped her feet back into the boots, she couldn’t help her mind wandering.

Ever since she’d impulsively led the citizens of Far Harbor to the Nucleus for their revenge...how was she supposed to know they’d wipe out the townsfolk as quickly as they did? Ultimately, their deaths were likely a blessing. With the synths of Acadia eradicated by her brothers and sisters, the Fog Condensers wouldn’t have remained operational for much longer. 

That was something else that was tearing her apart from the inside. Every single soul on that island, she’d doomed. Granted, the synths were mere machines, abominations, but Avery’s people, the Mariner, Alan, the Doc...all dead because she needed backup. Now, the island was left to the Trappers and the Fog Crawlers, all because of her.

All because of her. That one phrase kept replaying itself. All because of her did Piper leave, all because of her did the people of Far Harbor die, all because of her did the Brotherhood lose a whole battalion to the Gunners. Every day, the guilt ate her up, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could take it. She couldn’t even find time to shave her head anymore, amounting in the shaved half regrowing in a rather sparse and haggard way. But she didn’t care.

Most of the scribes she bunked with were still asleep, their duties still didn’t start for another hour. Lucky bastards. Pulling her bag over her shoulder and holstering her pistol on her hip, she headed down the stairs towards Teagan’s armory. Modified assignment, but not on the Elder’s orders. On her request. There was no damn way she was going out into the field to fight alongside people who depended on her while she could hardly think straight. Just yesterday, she’d put in the request, it hadn’t even been approved yet, but she figured they owed her that much.

Arriving at the terminal, she brought up the login screen. Right...the password. The one she didn’t have. “Only one other way…” She muttered to herself, just before sitting on the counter and sliding across, just underneath the barrier between the commissary and the crew deck. Pausing intuitively, she turned around to take a look at the shelves under the desk, where lo-and-behold, there sat a holotape labelled  _ “Inventory Terminal Password”.  _

“Genius, Teagan. Forgetful old piece of shit…” Alex gave a little grin despite herself at the quip, even though nobody was around to hear it. Then it struck her that there was nobody around, not even the work crews. Sparing a glance at her Pip-Boy, the time caught her off guard. Four A.M, another hour until the first crews were due to start. Passing the time off as a mere malfunction of the wrist device, she turned to the terminal and punched the password in, bringing up the inventory menu. All around her were scattered unorganized, uncatalogued weapons, ammo, armor, anything one could find in an armory. This was going to take a while.

“Mm...okay…” Reaching down and grabbing the first object, she looked it over. A case of fusion cores, ten count. With a nod, she punched the number into the terminal and repeated the process with everything she could find that wasn’t already in the terminal.

Although she wasn’t keeping track of time, she estimated it was about a half-hour before she heard the first noises, the sound of someone climbing up the notoriously creaky ladder from the flight deck. Seeing as the engineers sometimes pulled graveyard shifts, she paid no attention to it. The terminal beeped and highlighted a spelling mistake on the screen, which she quickly corrected before moving on with her work.

It wasn’t until someone clicked in the password to the armory and opened the door that she looked away from her work again. 

“Maxson assigned me to work inventory the next few days, Teagan, gonna have to deal with it. Oh, and try not to label the damn password next time, at least stick ‘Ghoul Watching Data’ or something on the front.”

There was a slight pause before someone spoke up, but it wasn’t the soft and somehow eerie voice of the Proctor, but a very familiar, low voice. “I didn’t assign you to anything, Sentinel.”

Alexandra shut her eyes and sighed. Several perks came with being close friends with the Elder, but it seemed being caught for unauthorized work detail wasn’t one of the things those perks exempted her from. 

“Right…I guess you didn’t get the request, then, sir?” She kept her tone strictly formal, she didn’t intend to upset anybody, at least until she had a gauge on how pissed he was at her.

“I’m here in an unofficial capacity, Alex.” The Sentinel heard him shut the door as he walked closer and she turned around to face him, leaving one of the entries partially unfinished. As she opened her mouth to respond, however, she was cut off again, “I’ve been hearing reports from the crew that you’ve been acting strangely for the past four or so days, ever since you got back from up north. Is something wrong?” In his own way, he sounded worried, though his ‘worried for his crew’ and his ‘worried about the ghoul infestation’ tone were strikingly similar.

“Nope, nothing’s wrong. Just a bit bogged down, I’ll be ship-shape ASAP, just have to get back into the swing of things here in the Commonwealth.” Although she tried to sound upbeat and worry-free, she didn’t even believe it herself, and it showed in her halfhearted tone. 

“Sentinel, you spent the last four days helping Quinlan pore over technical documents and now you’re doing inventory for Teagan. If you keep lying to me like this I’ll have to make this official and reprimand you. For several things.” It definitely didn’t sound like he was going to do it, but what was important is that she believed he would. 

“I’ve just got uh...problems with Pipes, I just need something to take my mind off of it.” Once again choking back the tears that threatened to rise, she turned to the terminal again.

“I see. And when in the past has taking down Mutants not calmed you?”

“It just won’t work this time, okay?” She knew it was unfair to him, but she couldn’t help her tone becoming more harsh. Nevertheless, being the hardened soldier he is, he kept pressing.

“Something has to work. Think about something, do something other than the work scribes can do.”

“Maxson,” She caught herself using his last name instead of his first, a bad sign, even to her. “I don’t want to talk about this right now, back off of it.”

“Sentine--”

“Fuck off!” With a kick to the trolley upon which the terminal stood, she grabbed a nearby laser rifle and a box of fusion cells, promptly slinging the rifle over her shoulder and pulling the door open. “I’m going to patrol the perimeter, don’t fucking follow me Arthur!” At this point, she didn’t care who could hear, she just kept walking.


End file.
